Controlling use of /tmp vs /var/tmp

[Cameron Simpson]

On 22Apr2015 07:53, ed greshko <ed.greshko at greshko.com> wrote:
>On 04/22/15 07:20, Max Pyziur wrote:
>> Recently, I tried asking a question in regard to the use of /tmp vs /var/tmp in F21?
>> Is there a way of controlling where temporary files used by certain programs are stashed?
>>
>> With /tmp the files are erased w/ each reboot; w/ /var/tmp they sit there until the files get wiped by something like tmpwatch.
>>
>> As an example, I open enough pdf files using Firefox; in turn, I export them to Acrobat. There, they are stored in /tmp, until I save them to some other location. If I forget, or there is a system crash, the files are lost.
>>
>> In older versions of Fedora (my prior one was F18), temporary files in Acrobat were assigned to /var/tmp.
>>
>> Is there a way or place to specify this?
>
>I don't think there is a way to force all applications to use a specific tmp file directory location.
>
>You can, however, change /tmp from being tmpfs to being on actual persistent disk storage.  Simply do,
>
>systemctl mask tmp.mount
>
>This takes effect on the next boot.

Also, many many programs (and all right thinking programs) will honour the 
$TMPDIR environment variable. Of course you need to get that into the 
environment of the running program. For stuff invoked from the command line 
everything is easy; I routinely set $TMPDIR=$HOME/tmp in my profile. For things 
invoked via desktop GUI buttony stuff, it depends on your desktop.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>

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